Kosta Keramaris says he was driving his recently-purchased BMW along Edmonton's Anthony Henday Drive, also known as provincial Highway 216, when a windstorm began whipping up sand and rock from the ground this past weekend.

The debris pelted his new vehicle with such strength that Keramaris said it was difficult to hear his son speaking over the noise of gravel hitting the vehicle's exterior.

When the wind died down and he had a chance to assess the situation, Keramaris found the exterior of his vehicle badly damaged.

"It's not even chips on the finish. It's chips on the paint itself," he said, running a hand along the front of the car and ducking down to inspect the wheels. "The rocks are that strong that it can chip away the paint on your (wheel) rims, right? That's a pretty good blast of wind."

The car owner contacted a body shop and they responded with a hefty quote: $17,192.63.

Now, he's hoping the province will take some sort of responsibility for the repairs.

Keramaris says he believes the gravel that chipped at his new car should never have been on the road in the first place.

"We haven't had any snow. Whatever snow was on the ground has been melted away. Whatever you can see on the roads now is just basically mountains of rock," he said. "It's their (the province's) responsibility to clean it."

Keramaris said the Transportation Department told him he can file a claim for the province to evaluate.

And in the meantime, the sand on the road is not going anywhere soon.

The department said spring clean-up only happens when crews can be sure the province isn't in for more snow, and that time might not come until April.

Advertisements

Latest Canada & World News

SAN FRANCISCO -- The illegally occupied Oakland warehouse where dozens of partygoers perished in a blaze does not appear in a database fire inspectors use to schedule inspections and may never have been checked for fire hazards, a firefighter with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.
Source

SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of -- Large crowds are expected to gather in South Korea's capital to celebrate the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye over an explosive corruption scandal that saw millions protest in previous weeks.
Source

WASHINGTON -- Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani formally withdrew from consideration for a post in President-elect Donald Trump's administration Friday, putting an end to his ill-fated bid to lead the State Department. Trump is now seriously considering Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson for the post.
Source

Kevin O'Leary is expected to announce his intentions on his bid for the federal Conservative leadership on Monday, sources confirm.
The 62-year-old businessman-turned-reality-star is expected to tell Conservative members of parliament during a meeting he's hosting over the lunch hour.
Source

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A woman assaulted as a girl during a 1982 sexual attack that killed her mother says she was coerced into identifying the wrong man as the assailant and is asking Missouri’s governor to free that person who has spent 34 years in prison for the crimes.
Source

MONTREAL -- The Bay store in downtown Montreal was fined $765,000 for illegally releasing pollutants into the St. Lawrence River, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada said Friday. But Nathalie Houle of the federal government's public prosecution office was unable to confirm a Montreal La Presse report the fine was imposed after roughly 146 kilograms of PCBs from old transformers on the building's roof leaked into a drain and into the river.
Source

WASHINGTON -- Corporate registrations in Delaware show that President-elect Donald Trump shut down some of his companies in the days after the election, including four companies that appeared connected to a possible Saudi Arabia business venture.
Source

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A refrigerator was ruled out as the cause of a fire at a warehouse in Oakland that killed 36 people, but investigators were still looking at electrical systems as possible ignition sources, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Friday.
Source

Police in Florida say a man shot his ex-wife four times during an argument at an Orlando karaoke bar early Friday morning.
Tu Quoc Ho, 43, was arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder with a firearm, aggravated battery with a firearm, tampering with evidence and domestic violence battery, Orlando News 6 reports.
Source

Appearing jovial and relaxed, Donald Trump plunged back into election politics Friday, a full month after he won the presidency, enthusiastically prodding Louisiana Republicans to turn out for Saturday's Senate runoff election and protect the party's 52-48 margin in Washington.
Source